Networking question.

This is a discussion on Networking question. within the Tech Board forums, part of the Community Boards category; I plan on networking two computers. One currently has Windows Me, and the other one has Windows XP.
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I would setup Mandrake after you setup the network so that you know your ip address and dns...etc... which you will need for setting up linux if you want the internet to work right after installation. Mandrake is more user friendly, it might detect it for you. I would look up on that.

And if mandrake automatically sets it up, then before is fine to.

the hub and router is up to you.

A hub is not a central unit such as a routers. Lets say you have one computer that connects to the net, and you want to network that computer with another. The hub lets the second computer share the internet connection of the first computer. So the first computer would have to be on for the second computer to use the internet or to access the first computer.

So the internet connection goes into the first computer then goes into the hub, and then it is split up to the 2nd+ computers.

A hub is used for dialup connections

Now a router on the otherhand is better, if you have a broadband connection. IE cable or DSL. The broadband connection goes from the outside world to your router which then 'routes' the connection to all the computers connected to the router. So the router stays on 24 hours a day, while any computer can use the internet and use the files from one anothers computer.

A router is a central unit in your network.

At my house I have a router, and its very convienient, and I think necessary for two or computers. Also I have a print server connected to my router so that any computer on the network can use that one printer. Its very nice and convienient.

it depends if you have a broadband connection or a dial up connection.

you could save yourself some money... if you're only networking 2 computers, you might be just as well off to get a second NIC in the one and just share your net connection that way. Granted, I don't think ME has that capability, but Mandrake does.

And if you're just doing this for file sharing, which I doubt, you can just use a crossover cable.

With the router solution described above, presumably the router has the IP address that the DSL connection is supplied with. The IP's for the machines in your home have IP's allocated by the home owner, and they all communicate with the 'net via a proxy server which translates the local IP's to the routers IP.

Precisely

The router acts as a border node, it has an external IP (usually from the DHCP server of your provider) and an internal IP (usually in the non-addressable range, specifically usually 192.168.1.1. The LAN-side connections are generally handled by a DHCP client running on the router, or done manually.

There are pros and cons, you are effectively firewalling yourself, so if you like to use server-type software (anything from Apache to Morpheus) you will need to read your routers docs on port-forwarding and/or DMZing your serving box.

Having a router setup in this manner also gives you the ability to share files or folders between your computers without having to worry as much about security breaches.

A hub is just a device for connecting more things together than you have the ports for, a router is more like a node on your network.

Hub-- this is a dumb switch. It accepts network traffic and blasts it out across all ports. Lots of packet collisions.

Switch- this is an intelligent switch. It accepts network traffic, looks at its tables and determines out which port the inbound traffic must go. Much faster, no collisions.

Router- This is your "modem". ADSL Modem or Cable Modem.

You should ALL be using something like a GATEWAY in between your router and your switch/hub. I would strongly recommend the D-LINK DI-704 or DI-804 models. The handle NAT, IP translation, firewall, statistics, PPPoE, DHCP, etc.